


Learning to Walk

by Yrindor



Series: Sports Anime Shipping Olympics 2016 Fills [78]
Category: Tennis no Oujisama | Prince of Tennis, 弱虫ペダル | Yowamushi Pedal
Genre: Amputation, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Injury Recovery, Prompt Fic, Remix, SASO 2016, Serious Injuries
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-23
Updated: 2016-08-23
Packaged: 2018-08-10 14:54:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 734
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7849462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yrindor/pseuds/Yrindor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After an injury claims Kinjou's leg, he's faced with a long road to recovery.  Luckily, both of his fathers will do everything they can to help.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Learning to Walk

**Author's Note:**

  * For [BlueMinuet](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueMinuet/gifts).
  * Inspired by [SASO 2016 BR4 Inui & Kinjou Fic](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/223558) by blueminuet. 



> Written for Sports Anime Shipping Olympics 2016 Bonus Round 6: Remixes. Also fills the "robots/androids" square for Hurt/Comfort Bingo round 7.
> 
> For anyone who's not familiar with it, BlueMinuet has a lovely AU headcanon in which Kinjou is the son of Inui and Kaidou, and they've managed to drag me into it too.

The injury that had ultimately claimed his leg hadn't seemed that bad at first. Sure, wounds from nasturscian steel were notoriously slow to heal, but after his injury, Inui had inspected his knee carefully with every filter his eyes could see from X-ray right up through microwave before he finally declared the wound clean. But despite Kaidou methodically disinfecting it and changing the bandages every day, it had festered and refused to heal until amputation was the only option. Before the surgery, Inui had assured him there would be nothing he couldn't do afterward, pointing to his own body that was as much metal as flesh as proof. Kaidou had been more reticent, as usual, but even he had squeezed Kinjou's hand and said, "You're tough."

Kinjou had been prepared for the pain after the surgery as his body adjusted to having metal where there once had been bone and wires where there had been nerves, but he hadn't been prepared for just how difficult it would be to teach his body how to use his leg again. Even something so simple as walking had to be relearned, and though he had graduated from the physical therapy space in the hospital to the matching space Kaidou had prepared for him at home, he still hadn't moved past slow, awkward steps taken in the relative safety of the space between a set of parallel bars.

This day was no different. It was the beginning of his third week back at home, and Inui was watching him work through his rehabilitation exercises, tablet in hand like usual. He had barely made it a dozen steps when his leg gave out under him without warning, and he caught himself on the bars, the wood slamming yet again into his arms and adding to the ever-growing bruises.

"It's because you're trying to use it like a leg," Inui said as if that were the most obvious conclusion in the world.

Kinjou's confusion and frustration must have been obvious since his father backed up, fingers flying over his tablet as he rendered holographic models supported by complex equations to illustrate the differences between the biological interfaces Kinjou had known all his life and the biomechanical interface he was struggling to learn. By the time Inui finished, Kinjou agreed with his initial statement.

That didn't mean it was any easier to get his body to agree though. He was exhausted and covered in sweat by the time Inui finally declared they had done enough for the morning, and he knew they'd be right back at the next day as soon as Inui finished analyzing the copious notes he always took during their sessions.

He also knew he didn't have too long to rest. Kaidou would be back from work in a couple of hours, and he would undoubtedly pick up right where Inui had left off, though with far less note-taking. If Inui took a data-driven approach to Kinjou's rehabilitation, Kaidou ran purely off of instinct and training. In his opinion, the best way to improve was to keep drilling the same routine over and over until it stuck.

Unlike Inui, he still hadn't accepted that Kinjou's injury would likely prevent him from taking over the family business as he had hoped. Kinjou wasn't willing to rule it out entirely as Inui had, but it definitely wasn't at the forefront of his focus, and it made it difficult to work with his father sometimes. It was also clear that Kaidou blamed himself for what had happened, even though Kinjou knew there was nothing Kaidou could have done to prevent the accident. And even though Kaidou had been living with a man who was more machine than human for years, he was still struggling to adjust to his son's first step in that direction.

Kinjou wouldn't trade either of his fathers in though. He like to think he had the best of both worlds between Inui's data and Kaidou's instinct and perseverance. Perhaps it was no surprise that he tended to fall somewhere between the two of them. He'd take the data Inui gave him about learning to use his new leg, and then practice with it for as long as it took for him to make it a part of himself. If there was one thing he knew, it was that no matter what, he wasn't going to give up.

**Author's Note:**

> As always, comments and feedback are welcome and appreciated.


End file.
